Postcards from Eridge

We stage events in all sorts of locations, from the wide open fields of the Hop Farm in Kent, to the walled garden of a family home in north London. Everywhere has its own special qualities and it’s our job to make the most of them, wherever and whatever they are.

Inevitably, every location has its challenges, from parking and access to noise and neighbours. It’s rare that you find a location where everything is just right for the job in hand.

All of which is why it’s been so lovely for us to be working down at Eridge Park in East Sussex this week.

We’ve been the official event consultants there for 4 years, so we’ll admit we’re unduly fond of the place, because of all the memories it holds for us. We have overseen a number of festivals including Forgotten Fields (5000 cap), Playgroup (2000 cap)  and Hi Definition Dance festival (15,000 cap).  

 But it’s not just about all the good times we’ve had there. With the UK’s summer festivals finding ever more esoteric locations (Festival No6’s takeover of the entire village of Portmeirion is one of our favourites), the competition is getting tougher and more interesting, but Eridge always manages to stand its ground.

So what’s so special about Eridge? For one thing, its location is pretty perfect for weekend music events. It’s just outside Royal Tunbridge Wells, with direct rail links to central London taking around 50 minutes. While there has been a move towards ever more remote and secluded locations (End of the Road,Secret Garden Party), we hear time and again how a long journey there, and especially home, can be a spoiler for many festival-goers. Having an urban location is one of the reasons London’s Lovebox has done so well. Without the hassle of camping and driving, everyone can really cut loose. Being close enough to London and all its train connections, but also in rural countryside, Eridge ticks both boxes. 

But accessibility is only a small part of what draws us to Eridge.

This is the oldest deer park in England, and even gets a mention in the Domesday Book as belonging to a guy called Odo - William the Conqueror’s brother, no less. There are still thousands of deer on the estate today and much of the land is heavily protected as a Site of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI), because of the wildlife and nature it is home to.

The weight and gravitas of this history embraces you as you enter Eridge, and sits around your shoulders like a deer skin the whole time you’re here. But it’s a timeless feeling of importance, rooted in the landscape it occupies; Eridge isn’t manicured or pompous, or anchored slavishly in the past. It’s just breathtakingly beautiful.

There are over 3,000 acres of parkland, much of which is ancient woods, where giant oaks offer natural shelter. There are also some incredible stripped, bare trees which punctuate the landscape with a kind of natural architecture - some look like they could be straight out of the Nevada desert.

The open spaces are undulating, so you can stand in one of the gentle valleys or copses and be surrounded on all sides by green hills and woodland, creating the feeling of a natural amphitheatre. One copse in particular, the Plantation, is a thing of beauty, especially when it’s lit at night, like a magical fairy forest.

In fact Eridge seems almost to have anticipated its future and carved itself up into these naturally occurring areas that work so well for events and performances. These spaces, marked out by babbling brooks and majestic lines of trees planted centuries ago, mean there’s no need for fencing and artificial boundaries.

There is even a ‘red carpet’ entrance to Eridge - its long and gently winding drive that builds anticipation as you reach the crest of the park before dipping down into the rolling expanse  of the park and its lake, with glimpses of Eridge House in the distance.

You’ll be hearing lots more about Eridge soon, as we begin to share details with you about our forthcoming events in 2018.

We were there only last week, on a cold and rainy day in January - a time when the estate should have been at its worst - and yet still it took our breath away.   

 Debs x

New Year's Eve and how to make it swing

One of my favourite places to source ideas and inspiration is Rockett St George - I love their relaxed, luxe-meets-bohemia style - there's always a touch of drama which I find translates well to my work in creating memorable events. I always read their blog, so I'm especially thrilled to be part of this post on New Year's Eve parties and how to make them feel fabulous. Some great tips here if you're hosting a get-together on Saturday night. Have a good one and see you in 2017! Debs xx

https://rockettstgeorge.me/2016/12/27/rsgstyle-5-top-tips-for-your-new-years-eve-party/

Entertee Confidential: stories from behind the scenes at Entertee Events

Gold Rush at Hop Farm

We weren’t to know it at the time, but the Hop Farm Festival in 2014 would be the last UK performance for a very special act. While there were many standout moments to that night, the part that will always stay with us as organisers of the event, is the call we got from their artist liaison team, only hours before the show was due to start. Could we make sure there was a gold throne in the artist’s dressing room for after the show?

Anyone who has been to Hop Farm knows the rural nature of this event means dressing rooms are few and far between -  they are basically Portacabins. We had a spare one we could clear out, but a gold throne? In the middle of the Kent countryside? On a Saturday afternoon in August? This was pushing our resourcefulness to new limits.

Not to be defeated, we put our heads together and came up with a plan. As everyone knows there’s only one place to go when you need emergency gold: Poundland. We hot-footed it to Sevenoaks and bought up all the gold tinsel and spray paint Poundland could proffer. 

Meanwhile, a member of our crew had learnt that a local lap-dancing club owned a golden throne (naturally) and we could borrow it, for a fee. It wasn’t our first choice of furniture shop, but MFI were all out of thrones and we didn’t have many other options at this stage. And so it was, that we found ourselves humping a big shiny armchair out the back door of Legs-Akimbo in Sevenoaks, trying as best we could not to think about what had happened on that seat. 

With only minutes to spare we filled that Portacabin with candles and fairy lights, draped it with fabrics and made the golden throne the centrepiece. Somehow we managed to make it look amazing. The show was a success, the talent was happy, and thankfully no-one ever found out where the throne had come from. 

Meet Jean, Site Mum

Posted by Gill Tee

It’s not a job title we’ve come across anywhere else, but there’s just no other way to describe her: Jean is our Site Mum.

Jean has been working with us since the very first Hop Farm Festival back  in 2008.  Having her around was such a comfort for us and our crew at that event, that she’s been Site Mum at most of our festivals and large-scale parties ever since.

We call her Site Mum because she’s exactly like a real mum when we’re running an event.  Jean looks after everyone, especially all the crew. At any event we’ll have a production team of riggers, scissor-bladers, boom operators and a whole bunch of other people doing jobs you’ve never heard of. They’re all people we know and trust, they’re all excellent at what they do, and for the duration of our event, they are all Jean’s children.

Turn up during preparations for any Entertee event and you’ll find Jean administering tea and slabs of her homemade cake, making sure everyone’s hydrated (summer festivals can mean hot conditions), being a first aider (we get through a lot of plasters) and offering a shoulder to cry on when someone needs her. It’s not unusual to witness Jean standing at the bottom of a 60ft ladder with her hands on her hips, hard techno pumping out over the sound system, telling a huge tattooed gaffer he needs to stop what he’s doing and come down for his lemonade and biscuits. So legendary is Jean’s lemon drizzle cake, that one year during the preparations for the Hop Farm Festival, Kent’s Chief of Police, who fancied himself something of a Paul Hollywood, challenged her to a cake-off. Crew got behind it and held a blind lemon drizzle tasting - needless to say Jean’s cake won.

It might sound a small thing, but we’ve learnt that having someone like Jean - actually, just Jean - around has a huge impact on the success of our events. Treating our crew with the kindness and respect we expect to be treated with ourselves, means we get a happy team who want to do a good job for us. So when there’s a problem, they want to help us put it right, even if it means staying up all night or driving for miles to pick someone up. People tell us time and again how much they love working for Entertee and we think a large part of that is down to Jean.

Gill x

A toast to SupaJam

Posted by Gill Tee

One of the great pleasures of having worked in the events industry this long, is being asked to share my knowledge and experience with others. I’m often invited to talk at events and join discussion panels at conferences, and if I can do it I will; I’ve been fortunate in my career to work with some genuine legends, so it makes sense to pay it forward if I can.  But by far the most rewarding of these opportunities is my recent appointment as trustee to the young people’s music charity, The SupaJam Foundation.

SupaJam gives vulnerable and disadvantaged young people the support and guidance they need to break into the music industry. These aren’t just naughty kids who have been expelled for skipping school, they are truly marginalised children, who have suffered abuse, homelessness and crippling addictions. They don’t get the access to the basic skills and training that many of us take for granted. SupaJam gives them the financial support and the skills they need to start their career - not just courses and qualifications, but contacts and crucially, work experience.

It’s a cause that’s close to my heart because I know that life could so easily have gone a different way for me. I grew up on a council estate in south east London, and experienced family tragedy at a young age. If I hadn’t been fortunate enough to meet certain people when I did, my story might not have had such a happy ending. So I’m excited to be able to give something back as part of the SupaJam team - especially getting some of the kids involved in our busy schedule for 2017.

I’ll be posting more as my role develops and we work with some of the SupaJam students. For now, if you’re interested in finding out more or supporting SupaJam, you can visit their website www.semm.co.uk 

Gill x

What makes an incredible event?

Posted by Debs Shilling

Party season is almost here and around this time of year I’m often asked what the secret of a standout event is. When it feels like we’re all on a socialising hamster wheel, how do you make your do special - whether it’s a full-on Christmas bash for a global company, or a small get-together at home?

Since Entertee Events launched in 1998 we’ve been privileged to be at the helm of some pretty spectacular parties: from Prince’s last UK show at the Hop Farm in 2011, to an intimate and heartwarming Bar Mitzvah bash for a north London family; from high art and fashion in royal parks, to sweaty stoner-rock gigs in Camden nightclubs.

I’ve learnt that events are all unique in terms of their guests, location and theme - the more unusual and eclectic you can make these elements, the more likely you are to have a party that gets talked about. A decent budget helps, too - money can’t buy you love, but it can buy you better wine.  

But experience has also taught me that it’s not always about how big and loud you make it, how pretty the room looks or how spendy the bubbles are. It’s about how personal it feels. Your party will be memorable if everyone leaves feeling like they’ve been treated with care and attention, regardless of how many tealights in jam jars you string up.

The principle holds true whether you’re the Prince of Monaco or a guest at a garden party. When someone has gone the extra mile for them, human beings feel buoyed. Sadly there’s no secret recipe for creating this feeling - it’s really just about being kind and thoughtful.

Some of the ways we’ve achieved it best over the years include wrapping cosy blankets around the partygoers standing outside on a freezing cold December night (smokers have feelings too!), and pressing bottles of water into our guests’ hands as they leave, so they can re-hydrate in the cab, and feel human-ish the next day.

So to answer the question, whatever your event this party season, make it personal.

Debs x